Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Probably Won’t Decide Cases This Term

President Trump is expected to announce his Supreme Court nominee Tuesday night, filing a spot on the bench left vacant after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia nearly a year ago. But it remains to be seen when the nominee, who stands to be a crucial tie-breaker in cases that would otherwise result in 4-4 splits, will actually be able to decide cases.

The last Supreme Court justice to be confirmed was Elena Kagan, an Obama nominee in 2010; it took the Democratic-majority Senate 87 days to decide on her. If today's Republican-majority Senate were to take that long, Trump's pick, who will almost certainly join the court's conservative bloc, would miss the traditional window for hearing oral arguments, which ends on April 26.

While there is no law barring a justice from deciding cases in which he or she was not present for oral arguments, tradition dictates that justices don't decide those cases.

Since Scalia's death left a vacant spot on the bench, the eight remaining justices have delayed scheduling oral arguments in three cases: Murr v. Wisconsin, Microsoft Corp. v. Baker, and Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia v. Pauley. The Court agreed to take on the cases in January 2016, when it still had nine justices.

Read more on VICE News



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